Maine's Art Desert

Move to Maine if you like to ski, kayak, swim, sail or hike and eat lobster. You'll have a ball. Do not move to Maine if you are an art lover. You will be disappointed.

The museums, a paltry few, all show the work of the same artists ad nauseam: Winslow Homer, Alex Katz and anyone named Wyeth.

They move the paintings in their collections from room to room. They rearrange the groupings. But believe me, if you've seen them once you've seen them all.

Forget seeing a real-live Picasso, Dali, Matisse, Renoir, Van Gogh, Rothko, Kahlo, O'Keefe, Vermeer, Degas, Monet, Manet, Turner or anyone long-dead. Not even a Hockney!

Oh wait -- forgive me. There is a Picasso at the Portland Museum of Art. Small, but nice. I've seen it 100 times in the past 17 years and I always like it.